Improvement in try-squares



HENRY DISSTON 8L JOAB MORSSi Improvement in Try-Squares.

I N0.126,527, Patented May7,1872.

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HENRY DISSTON AND JOAB MORSS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN TRY-SQUARES.

I Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 126,527, dated May 7, 1872.

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We, HENRY DrssToN and J OAB Morass, of Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improved Square, of which the following is a specification:

Nature and Object of the Invention.

Our invention consists of a mode (described hereafter) of fitting a wooden block to the metal stock of a square.

Description of the Accompanying Drawing.

General Description.

In making ordinary squares it is the practice to secure the steel blade directly to the wooden handle or socket by means of screws or rivets. However sound and dry the wood of the handle or stock may be in the first instance, it is liable to become warped and distorted either by hard usage or by exposure to alternate wet and dry atmospheres. These distortions are especially liable to take place after the wood has been planed or otherwise faced for the purpose of truing the square. In ordinary squares of the better class it is usual to face the inner edge with strips of brass secured to the wood, and to sometimes partially cover the latter with thin metal; but even these strips and covers do not prevent the injurious eifects of the warping of the wooden handle or stock. The object of our invention is to obviate this defect in ordinary squares, which invention we will now proceed to describe.

In the drawing, A represents the blade of a square, and consists, as usual, of a thin strip of steel. Instead of securing this blade directly to a wooden handle or stock in the usual manner we attach it to a metal stock, to which a block, B, of wood is adapted. The metal stock consists of a casting of brass or other metal, in the upper portion a of which a slot is cut for receiving the end of the blade A, which is permanently secured to stock by rivets b I). From the upper portion a the stock is extended downward so as to form the leg d, which is properly faced so as to be at right angles to the blade.

\Ve are aware that it has been a common practice to make squares with metal stocks or handles, so as to avoid the defects of ordinary wooden handles; but with a view of making them light it became necessary to have these handles of a shape so inconvenient as to be objectionable to those who had to handle the instruments; hence ordinary squares with metal handles have been for the most part discarded as unhandy and unpopular tools. In order to obviate this defect we adapt to the metal stock above described a wooden block, B, which, when fitted to its place, forms, with the said metal stock, a handle of the same form and dimensions as those of an ordinary square. It will be seen, therefore, that while our improved square possesses all the advantages of a square with a metal stock as regards the permanent truth of the tool, it has all the advantages of an ordinary square with a wooden stock as regards convenience in manipulating. Inclined ribs 0 on the stock form a dovetail, best observed on reference to Fig. 2, a corresponding dovetailed groove being formed in the wooden block for receiving the dovetailed ribs, so that the block may be moved upward, as shown in Fig. 3, until it incloses the whole of the stock, excepting the front of the leg at and the upper and rear edges of the portion a of the stock. In addition to the dovetail, the stock may be secured by a small pin or rivet. When the wooden block is thus fitted to its place the improved square will have the appearance, shape and dimensions of an ordinary square, the handle or stock, however, being somewhat heavier than that of a common square in which the blade is secured directly to the wooden stock.

Claim.

names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HENRY DISSTON. JOAB MORSS.

\Vitnosses:

A. H. SHOEMAKER, SAMUEL DISSTON. 

